have just spent 2 months on the perhintian islands in malaysia so very sorry for not updating in aaages but it was almost impossible to access the internet !!

so if you set your minds all the way back to the 5th of may, i will try & update :) arrived back in mumbai after an 11 hour train as i was due to catch my flight that night to KL in malaysia. HOWEVER, the transfer to the airport that was organised by Idex turned up 45 minutes late. I was very stressed at this point & it didnt really help that the taxi was going at about 90 mph weaving in & out of mopeds, but the driver assured me that you only needed to check into international flights an hour before departure, so i calmed down a little. arrived at the airport at around 2am, due to catch my flight which was at 3.40 am. ran around the terminal like a mad person trying to find my check in desk, untill i was told by a security man that i was at the completely wrong terminal ! i then had to run to the other terminal with my massive rucksack, only to find that this again was the wrong terminal & the original terminal i arrived at had been the correct one ! so ran aaall the way back.

at this point it was about 3am & the airport was near deserted, i finally found someone to help me, but it turned out the check in desk had closed 5 minutes ago ! aaargh ! I was then told there might be a possibility to still get me on the flight if i went to see them in the office upstairs above the terminal. Decided i had nothing to lose & ended up going through all these corridoors upstairs, still carrying my massive rucksack to try & fid this tiny office. eventually found it, but it was locked & nobody was there. When i heard the final call for the missing person on my flight i realised i should probably give up.

tried to use the phone to contact someone or get me on another flight, however india being india, there was obviously no phone connection available for another 5 hours. so, there i was, stuck in mumbai airport at 4.30am with nowhere to go, completely exhausted & stuck with 25kg of luggage. oh & also at this point some of the security guards thought it was hillarious to take pictures of me on their camera phones !! so helpfull !

so played the waiting game until the phones opened & made numorous phone calls to try & get me on another flight. after ringing the airline & finding out all flights going out to malaysia in the next 24 hours were fully booked, dad came to the rescue & managed to book me on a flight with another airline going out that evening. So after a grand total of 22 hours waiting in mumbai airport i was finally on a flight !! Had a fat glass of wine which knocked me out all the way to KL :)

got there just in time to catch my connecting flight to kota bharu. met up with marissa again & all of the new group ! was very exciting although im pretty sure i smelt absolutely terrible as i hadnt managed to shower or change my clothes in 2 days. spent an hour in a taxi to get to the jetti & then got a speedboat to the island where we all got absolutely soaked ! but at least it was some form of a shower !?

The island we were staying on was possibly the most beautiful place in the world. I soon forgot about all my traumas of the last 48 hours & decided that it was all worth it just to be on the island ! jumped in the sea almost as soon as we arrived as it was crystal clear & the average water temperature is about 30'C - amaazing !

(continued on next blog)